James will suffice for him. Now, what am I to do in that matter? Who
would have thought that he so coveted my lands that he would have slain
me and Edith to possess himself of them? His own lands a thrice as broad
as mine, though men say that he has dipped deeply into them and owes
much money to the Jews. He is powerful and has many friends, and
although Earl Talbot would stand by me, yet the unsupported word of
an apprentice boy were but poor evidence on which to charge a powerful
baron of such a crime as this. It were best, methinks, to say nought
about it, but to bury the thought in my own heart. Nevertheless, I will
not fail to take the precaution which the lad advised, and to let Sir
James know that there are some who have knowledge of his handiwork. I
hear he crosses the seas tomorrow to join the army, and it may be long
ere he return. I shall have plenty of time to consider how I had best
shape my conduct towards him on his return; but assuredly he shall never
be friendly with me again, or frighten Edith with his kisses."

"Well, Walter, has it been such a dreadful business as you expected?"
the armourer asked the lad when he re-entered the shop. "The great folks
have not eaten you at any rate."

"It has not been dreadful," Walter replied with a smile, "though I own
that it was not pleasant when I first arrived at the great mansion; but
the lady put me quite at my ease, and she talked to me for some time,
and finally she bestowed on me this chain, which our lady, the queen,
had herself given her."

"It is a knight's chain and a heavy one," Geoffrey said, examining
it, "of Genoese work, I reckon, and worth a large sum. It will buy you
harness when you go to the wars."

"I would rather fight in the thickest melee in a cloth doublet," Walter
said indignantly, "than part with a single link of it."

"I did but jest, Walter," Geoffrey said laughing; "but as you will not
sell it, and you cannot wear it, you had best give it me to put aside in
my strong coffer until you get of knightly rank."

"Lady Vernon said," the lad replied, "that she hoped one day it might
again belong to a knight; and if I live," he added firmly, "it shall."

"Oh! she has been putting these ideas into your head; nice notions truly
for a London apprentice! I shall be laying a complaint before the lord
mayor against Dame Vernon, for unsettling the mind of my apprentice, and
setting him above his work. And the little lady, what said she? Did sh